THE GLITTER OF GOLD
Part One

My dad was a prospector I remember those days when my dad was digging for gold in the Feather River of northern California with the fondness of my memories. This was indeed one of the highlights of my life. We were in the city of Oroville California. In about the Year of 1937, my parents were broke. They went to the Red Cross for some help. They would not even give them a penny.

From Oroville we went to Quincy California. My dad found a partner. They were working in the river. They did not have any power tools. All they had was hand shovels, crowbars, and a pick. They had a wooden sluice box. They put the sluice box on the edge of the river in the water. They put the box in the water so that the water could flow through it. Then they put a shovel of gravel from the bottom of the riverbed in the box. This is as far as you can dig down with hand tools. Because from there on is solid rock. The gravel goes through the box and the gold stays in the box.

They found a gold nugget as big as my dad's thumb. It weighted over two ounces. I still remember it. Indeed it was very beautiful to look at. This enabled them to buy a lot of groceries.

I think it was a 1934 Dodge that dad had. The rumble seat was taken out and dad made a small pick up out of it. We were in Quincy California. Dad had bought some dynamite for gold mining. Dad put the dynamite sticks in back of the pickup. Then had put dynamite caps in the pocket of the door. He said son do not slam the door when you get in. Well, I forgot and slammed the door. I had scared the living day lights out of my dad. He jumped and grabbed his heart. He may have throught he was on his way to heaven.

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